Service

There's a badly run bar near my house. Used to be a drunk bar -- for probably 50 years. It was quiet then. A good neighbor, run by people who know how to run bars. Now, it's a hipster bar. They have bouncers there who...I don't know what they do, but they don't keep the assholes who patronize the place quiet....

I used to point out the proximity of the houses -- like, four feet away from where their car is parked, not behind some thick thicket of trees, and note that it's 2 a.m. and people (like me) were sleeping, and/or would like to be. This gets them combative. Even though I like to call an asshole an asshole, it appears to be an extremely counterproductive technique.

My new move is to come out and say, "Excuse me, my baby's sleeping..." Shuts the assholes right up and gets them to move, to boot. And they even apologize. Nicely. So...if you're 45 and would like to sleep, "[F*(&] you!"...but if you've extruded a child, "We're so sorry, Ma'am"?

What do you make of this?

The answer is obvious: it is the same reason people suddenly become highly respectful of a fellow airline traveler if he is a soldier returning to the wars. People will go so far as to give up their First Class ticket on an 11-hour flight for such a man. For 'just another traveler,' they wouldn't hesistate to shove past him.

Motherhood is service, as soldiering is service. It is among the most honorable of occupations.

Flying the flag of motherhood when you are not a mother, by the way, is perfidy.